When our fear becomes hope

To the editor:

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asserted in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933: “Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

When you listen to Roosevelt’s ringing, patrician presentation of that famous declaration — which you can do instantly now, thanks to the marvels of the internet — you might automatically assume that he uttered words of profound wisdom.

But exactly what did he mean? To whom was he referring when he spoke of being consumed by that nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror?

I assume he meant decision-makers and those of influence within and outside of government. But I wish he had been specific. Is nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror actually common among human beings?

Could Roosevelt’s words have immediately or quickly allayed the fears of the millions of people out of work during the Depression? The fears of the millions of people who were ill-housed, ill-clothed and ill-fed? The fears of the thousands of Dust Bowl farmers who lost everything, and then traveled to build new lives in distant places, not knowing what awaited them? The daily terrible fears of people of color in the South and elsewhere?

The fears of people suffering from tuberculosis and other infectious diseases for which there were no cures? The fears of people acutely aware (to the extent possible then) of events in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, and what they might portend?

I suspect it was not Roosevelt’s vague and even mysterious words that gave many people hope for a better future, but rather the forcefulness, conviction and self-confidence with which he uttered them. Later, as the Depression continued — and then World War II raged with no end in sight — Roosevelt’s fireside chats comforted Americans and eased their fears.

Barack Obama, in my opinion, has similar oratorical skills. But unlike Roosevelt, as president he failed to use his bully pulpit regularly or often to convey hopeful messages.

We desperately need a leader who can help to ease the fears that grip many millions of us today. We need someone whose words and manner — along with his or her proposed legislation and other mechanisms for relief — will help to comfort those who are unemployed, or live paycheck-to-paycheck, or worry about how they will pay their rent or mortgages, or where their next meal will come from.

We need someone who can lessen our fears about nuclear holocaust while nine nations — among them Pakistan, India, China, North Korea and Russia — maintain stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Someone who can diminish our anxiety about voter suppression and other devices that erode democracy through the machinations of state and national Republican elected officials. And through undemocratic rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court, with its six-member conservative majority.

Someone who can deal with our fears of news outlets and social media that disseminate dangerous, false information about the coronavirus and other things. Someone who will address the anxiety of those who are afraid that women’s right to choose will be drastically abridged or destroyed. Someone who can diminish our terror about the menace of global warming.

President Biden, in my opinion, is fighting for what is right, and he is well aware of the myriad threats to people’s well-being, understands emotionally as well as intellectually what worries people and causes them anxiety, and feels true compassion for all of us. But he has yet to demonstrate that he can emulate President Roosevelt and serve as a sort of caring parent who inspires hope and provides reassurance.

I fervently hope that he will do whatever he possibly can to take on that role.

Miriam Levine Helbok

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